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Star Trek: First Contact
:"Resistance is futile." Captain Jean-Luc Picard, in command of the new Starship Enterprise-E, must defy orders and come to the rescue of Earth when a new Borg invasion threatens the Federation. But the incursion is a cover for the Borg's real objective: change Earth's history. The Enterprise-E and her crew must follow the Borg to 2063, to ensure that the first warp flight of Zefram Cochrane is not interfered with. Summary Prologue 24th Century After awakening from two very real consecutive nightmares that serve as terrifying reminders of his assimilation by the Borg Collective, Jean-Luc Picard, captain of the new Federation starship , receives a transmission from his superior officer in Starfleet, Admiral Hayes, who starts to relay distressing news. The captain interrupts, however, having realized that the news relates to an imminent incursion by the Borg. :"Captain's log, stardate 50893.5. The moment I have dreaded for nearly six years has finally arrived. The Borg, our most lethal enemy, have begun an invasion of the Federation, and this time, there may be no stopping them." encroaching on Federation space nears the planet Earth]] is deployed by the invading cube, as the mother ship erupts]] Despite the Enterprise being ordered to patrol the Romulan Neutral Zone while a fleet of starships is arranged to defend Earth from the invading threat of a single Borg cube, Picard, with the full support of his senior staff, disobeys orders by overseeing that the Enterprise hurriedly joins the fleet once the vessels engage the Borg and begin to suffer casualties. The Enterprise rescues the surviving crew members of the badly damaged [[USS Defiant (NX-74205)|USS Defiant]] and, discovering that Admiral Hayes' flagship has been destroyed in the battle, Picard assumes command of the fleet himself. With the rare, extensive knowledge of Borg technology he acquired as a member of their Collective, the captain is able to supervise the swift destruction of the cube, but the exploding enemy vessel launches a Borg sphere that continues on a course to Earth. Picard orders the Enterprise to pursue the sphere and welcomes Lieutenant Commander Worf aboard, who had been in command of the Defiant. The captain reveals that the Defiant is salvageable as it was not destroyed and the Klingon officer takes up his old post at the Enterprise's tactical station. assimilated by the Borg, the enters a temporal vortex, following the Borg sphere into the planet's past]] As the bridge crew watch their ship's viewscreen, the Borg sphere opens a temporal vortex, which provides the spacecraft with a means of time travel. Caught in a temporal wake behind the sphere, the Enterprise alone encounters an Earth that has dramatically changed, the planet having become extremely polluted and now being exclusively inhabited by approximately nine billion Borg. Believing that this Earth's devastation is due to alterations the Borg made in the past, Picard decides to follow the sphere and correct the timeline. The Enterprise charges ahead, leaving the 24th century and pursuing the Borg into the vortex, mere moments before it collapses. Part One 21st Century Amidst a small shanty town in Montana, Lily Sloane and a drunk Zefram Cochrane wander out of a makeshift bar and start to head home when the town is unexpectedly attacked by a volley of green disruptor fire that streaks down from a small pinpoint of light in the sky - unbeknown to the 21st century Humans, it is the Borg sphere. Cochrane and Sloane run for cover and separate. After destroying the sphere, the Enterprise's senior staff discover they have arrived in April 2063, one day before Earth's first contact with an alien species. In the Borg's attempt to prevent that significant event from happening, the sphere had been firing on a missile silo in Montana, where Earth's first warp-powered craft is being constructed. With the Enterprise's sensors off-line, the ship's bridge crew are unable to determine what damage has been done. fires at Picard and Data]] Picard consequently leads an away team that transports to the shanty town in Montana. After entering the nearby missile silo, they find that the occupants of the silo's control room have all been killed but that the prototype warp ship, the Phoenix, has suffered only minor damage. While inspecting the Phoenix, Picard and the android Lieutenant Commander Data are shot at by a skeptical Lily Sloane, using a machine gun on a lower level of the silo, but Data's ability to survive a high fall and his invulnerability to bullets help to quickly resolve the situation and Lily loses consciousness. Soon after, Doctor Crusher scans Lily with a medical tricorder, determining that she has been exposed to radiation from the damaged Phoenix. The doctor transports directly to the Enterprise's sickbay with Lily as her patient. At Picard's instruction, Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge prepares to depart the Enterprise with a repair crew that will attend to the Phoenix, leaving Lieutenant Paul Porter in command of Engineering. After the away team on Earth conclude that they are unable to locate Phoenix designer Zefram Cochrane, Lieutenant Porter meets a terryifying fate while isolated within the confines of a narrow Jeffries tube as does Lieutenant Eiger, who enters the tube after hearing Porter scream. Sensing that something is wrong aboard the Enterprise, Picard returns to the ship with Data, placing Commander Riker in charge of the away team before exiting the missile silo. reacts to news that he is needed as a diversion for the Borg]] Indeed, something is dreadfully wrong aboard the ship - several Borg were successful in secretly transporting aboard the Enterprise before the sphere was destroyed. Borg drones begin to break into sickbay and start to take control of the ship from Engineering but Data is able to prevent them from hacking into the vessel's main computer and the medical staff manage to escape sickbay with Lily Sloane, using the ship's Emergency Medical Holographic program as a diversion for the Borg. Without Dr. Crusher realizing, however, Lily decides to part from the group after they exit sickbay, unaware of the danger nearby. Part Two Picard briefs Data, Worf and a team of security officers who are armed with phaser rifles, explaining that their objective is to puncture one of the plasma coolant tanks in Engineering. Doing so will release plasma coolant that will liquify the Borg's organic components. In the shanty town's makeshift bar, Riker finds the Enterprises counselor, Deanna Troi, having found Zefram Cochrane but been unable to convince him of the truth about herself. Although both Troi and Cochrane are severely intoxicated, they share a remarkably strong alcoholic drink and Troi finally passes out. , Picard and Data hunt Borg]] Meanwhile, two teams creep through the corridors of the ''Enterprise - one group led by Worf, the other by Picard and Data. Before heading into the section of the ship which the Borg occupy, Data notes that he is experiencing anxiety so, at Picard's suggestion, he deactivates his emotion chip. Worf's team meanwhile happen upon Dr. Crusher and her medical staff, who have since realized Lily's absence and are subsequently escorted to safety by a member of Worf's group. The security teams reunite as the Borg ignore their presence but, after Data unsuccessfully tries to access Engineering, combat ensues. While both sides suffer losses, Data is abducted into Engineering and, before long, the Starfleet officers are forced to flee the area. Picard rushes into a Jeffries tube, where he meets a scared Lily Sloane. As he earns her trust and explains the reality of the situation to her, demonstrating some of the Enterprise's advanced technology and its distance from Earth, Riker, Troi and Geordi La Forge do likewise with Zefram Cochrane, showing him the Enterprise through a telescope and telling him about his place in future history. descends to her body]] Simultaneously, Data, restrained in Engineering, encounters the cryptic and defiant Borg Queen, who he first hears as a disembodied voice before watching her suspended head, neck and torso being lowered by cables into a hollow body, the components connecting to become a whole person. The Queen reactivates his emotion chip and stimulates his senses by blowing over a section of organic skin the Borg have grafted onto his android body. In a corridor, Picard describes the Federation and the Borg to Lily, who later reacts in terror as the captain leads her through a corridor assimilated by the Borg where she sees the drones for herself. Armed with a phaser, Picard fires at one of the Borg systems, quickly provoking a response from two drones who pursue them. Lily reacts in confusion, as she sees no escape for her and the captain. Part Three Picard hurries Lily into a nearby holosuite, where he accesses ''The Big Good-Bye'', a 1950s-era holonovel in which the captain often plays the part of the main protagonist, Dixon Hill. After the pair of pursuing Borg drones succeed in breaking into the holosuite, Picard shoots them both with a holographic Tommy gun in a fit of unbridled fury and is about to smash the gun down on one of the lifeless Borg bodies when Lily stops him from doing so, shocked to find that the drone was once a Starfleet ensign. On Earth, Zefram Cochrane grows frustrated with the high esteem bestowed upon him by the 24th century officers who comprise the Phoenix's repair crew, such as Lieutenant Reginald Barclay. At one point, the inventor even tries to sneak away but is caught in the act by Geordi La Forge and Commander Riker, who renders Cochrane unconsciousness with a phaser. Aboard the Enterprise, efforts to impede the Borg continue, but with great difficulty. Picard, Worf and the vessel's flight controller, Lieutenant Hawk, overcome the difficulties of a challenging spacewalk and manage to prevent a handful of drones from using the ship's deflector dish to contact contemporary Borg residing in the Delta Quadrant, but Lieutenant Hawk dies in the process. Data, after making a failed attempt to escape Engineering, ultimately surrenders his body to the seductions of the Borg Queen. When the crew's weapons begin to prove completely useless against the adapting drones on board, Worf advises evacuating the Enterprise and setting the ship to self-destruct. Picard is at first extremely reluctant to consider these suggestions, deeply insulting the Klingon for presenting such a cowardly course of action, but, following a heated discussion with Lily in which she learns that he is not only haunted by his experience of assimilation into the Borg Collective as Locutus but also stubbornly vengeful due to it, the captain chooses to do as Worf suggested and the necessary preparations are thus carried out. Picard apologizes to the Klingon regarding his earlier remarks and the two officers have a reconciliation. With nearly the entire crew dispatched to the Enterprise's escape pods, Picard stands alone on the bridge when he becomes aware of Data's presence aboard the ship and again senses the Borg. From the tight confines of the missile silo in Montana to the remarkable wonder of the stars, the Phoenix is launched, flown by Zefram Cochrane, Commander Riker and Geordi La Forge with Counselor Troi supervising the initial stages of the event from the silo's control room. As the Phoenix soars above the Earth's atmosphere, the craft's occupants prepare to engage warp. Before Lily accesses an escape pod on the Enterprise, Picard informs her he still has a friend aboard the ship who he feels obliged to save. With her blessing, Picard goes in search of Data as the escape pods are deployed, heading towards Gravett Island, on Earth. Now alone on the ship with the Borg, Picard is free to go wherever he wants. Strolling into engineering, Picard enters the Borg hive with no resistance. Looking up at the assimilated warp core a familiar voice emerges from the darkness and the Borg Queen makes her appearance, "Isn't this familiar? Organic minds are such fragile things... we were very close you and I." A flood of memories flash in Picard's mind, images of Picard as Locutus and of the Queen herself. Suddenly he remembers her, she was there all along. "But that ship," he says, "and all the Borg on it were destroyed." The Queen mocks him, "You think in such three-dimensional terms, how small you've become." Then she turns to Data, standing in an alcove, "Data understands me." Picard now notices his android officer, his face now divided by a large patch of Human flesh and hair. "What have you done to him?" Picard asks. "Given him what he always wanted," the Queen replies, "flesh and blood." Picard appeals to the Borg Queen, suggesting she take him instead of Data. He tells her that he is offering himself to her without any resistance, just the way she wanted. She touches his face with her cybernetic hand and commends his nobility, deactivating a force field restraining Data and telling him he's free to go. When Data does not act, Picard orders the android to leave. Data resists, refusing to go. The Queen is delighted, telling the captain that she has already found an equal in Data. Then she orders the android to deactivate the self-destruct sequence and give her control of the computer. Data steps out from his Borg alcove and moves to a computer terminal, deactivating the destruct sequence and breaking the computer encryption code. He moves to stand next to her as two Borg drones seize Captain Picard. With his face now half organic, Data smiles and says of the captain, "He will make an excellent drone." In space, the Phoenix, Riker, La Forge and Cochrane prepare to bring the warp engines online. Looking out of a window, Cochrane spots the Enterprise approaching and is in awe. Riker tells the scientist to relax, the Enterprise is likely there to give them a send off. Picard is thrown onto the Borg operating table, a drone holding a saw to his neck. Data stands at a free-standing console and punches in commands, activating the weapons systems. The Queen orders Data to lock onto the Phoenix and destroy it. Data hesitates for a second, then fires quantum torpedoes. The Borg Queen stands next to Picard and they watch a monitor together as the torpedoes streak toward the tiny spacecraft. "Watch," the Queen says, "Your futures end." On the screen, the torpedoes draw ever nearer to the Phoenix, then narrowly miss the vessel. The Queen spins around to face Data, yelling his name. Standing next to the warp core Data's face is fierce, "Resistance is futile!" He turns and punches a plasma coolant tank which explodes in a flood of radiant gas that overtakes the android and spills out over engineering. Aboard the Phoenix, the warp engines have been deployed and Cochrane orders their activation, "Engage!" The warpship jets off at warp speed, Cochrane screaming as the stars streak past the windows of his ship. Picard is quick to react to the coolant leak, leaping up onto the operating table and grabbing hold of several hanging wires. As the Queen activates two snaking cables to retrieve her, Picard latches onto them, using them to pull himself above the flood. The Queen reaches out and grabs onto the captain's leg, pulling him toward her as he struggles to climb. Emerging from the liquid gas, Data, his flesh now melted clean off, catches the Queens leg and pulls her hard toward him. The three struggling like this, hanging onto one another until Data overpowers the Queen, yanking her into the bubbling coolant where she immediately begins to dissolve. Falling out of warp, the Phoenix banks back and Earth appears distant in the windows. Cochrane is still in awe, amazed at how far they've traveled in just a few seconds. Venting the deadly gas from engineering, Picard climbs down to the deck amid a slew of dead Borg. Stepping gingerly over the metallic skeletons of what remains of the Borg, Picard approaches the body of the Queen. The skull and cerebellum of the Borg Queen are still alive, writhing helplessly on the deck. Crouching over her remains, Picard picks up the Queen's skull and holds it in his hands. He stares down into the face of the former Borg Queen then violently breaks the cerebellum. The flashing lights of the skull quickly die and Picard throws it to the floor. Picard turns to find Data, circuitry on half his face and one arm exposed, lying against the remains of the Borg operating table. The captain rushes to the android's side, asking him how he feels. Data admits that he is sorry to see the Queen dead. Picard agrees that she was unique, but Data explains further. She brought him closer to Humanity than he had ever been and she tempted him, albeit briefly. The captain wonders just how long Data was tempted and the android replies, "Zero point six eight seconds, sir. For an android, that is nearly an eternity." :"Captain's Log, April 5, 2063. The voyage of the ''Phoenix was a success – again. The alien ship detected the warp signature, and is on its way to rendezvous with history." Lights appear in the night sky over the Montana village. Captain Picard, Doctor Crusher, Commander Riker, Deanna Troi and Geordi La Forge have assembled to witness history as the alien starship breaks through the clouds and lands in front a crowd of onlookers. Cochrane is reluctant to greet the visitors as an airlock opens and cloaked figure emerges. Riker tells Cochrane that the aliens will want to meet the man who invented the warp ship and the scientist steps forward, taking Lily's hand. Standing in front of the alien vessel, Cochrane approaches the visitor who removes his hood and reveals himself to be a Vulcan. Extending a hand, the Vulcan displays his people's customary salute with the words, "''Live long and prosper." Cochrane attempts to imitate the gesture to no avail, bringing his hand down for a friendly handshake, and replies "Thanks." Away from the crowd, Picard bids a fond farewell to Lily. Lily is sad to see him go, telling Picard that she envies him and the world he's going to. Picard counters, telling her that he envies her for being here during these historic days. He adds, "I shall miss you Lily" and leans in for a gentle kiss on the cheek. Joining his fellow officers, Picard and company transport back aboard the Enterprise to head back to their own time. Now in uniform, the entire crew of the USS Enterprise-E is together on the bridge. Taking their stations, the crew prepares for the journey back home, recreating the temporal vortex that brought them here. Sitting in his chair, Picard assures his officers that he suspects, "Our futures are there waiting for us." Then gives the command to "Make it so." Lily stands on a hill and looks up as the Enterprise enters the temporal vortex overhead. She turns and looks down to the village bar where Cochrane introduces the Vulcans to booze. Revving up the jukebox, Cochrane plays them a song, showing them a few of his dance moves. The stars hang over the treetops of Montana and rock 'n roll plays on... Memorable Quotes "We've finished our first sensor sweep of the Neutral Zone." "Oh, fascinating. Twenty particles of space dust per cubic meter, fifty-two ultraviolet radiation spikes, and a class two comet. Well, this is certainly worthy of our attention." : - Riker and Picard "Captain, I believe I speak for everyone here sir when I say, 'To Hell with our orders'." : - Data "Main power is off-line, we've lost shields and our weapons are gone!" (hits a console) "Perhaps today '''is' a good day to die! Prepare for ramming speed!" : - '''Helm officer' and Worf, on the Defiant "Tough little ship." "Little?" : - Riker and Worf, speaking about the Defiant "You do remember how to fire phasers...?" : - Riker, to Worf "Please state the nature of the medical emergency." "Twenty Borg are about to break through that door. We need time to get out of here. Create a diversion!" "This isn't part of my programming. I'm a doctor, not a doorstop." "Well, do a dance, tell a story, do anything – just give us a few seconds!" : - Emergency Medical Hologram and Dr. Crusher "I'm just trying to blend in." "You're blended, all right." : - Troi and Riker, about Troi's intoxication "Timeline?'' This is no time to be arguing about time! We don't have the time!... what was I saying?" : - '''Troi', to Riker, while intoxicated "If you want my ''professional opinion, as ship's counselor... he's nuts!" "''I'll be sure to note that in my log." : - Troi and Riker, about Zefram Cochrane "Sir, I believe I am beginning to feel the emotion anxiety. It is a most intriguing emotion, unsettling and distracting to..." "Data, I'm sure it's a fascinating experience, but perhaps you should deactivate your emotion chip for now." "Good idea, sir.(twists neck)'' Done." "''Data, there are times that I envy you." : - Data and Picard, as they encounter the Borg modifications to the Enterprise "You'd better find a way to make it easy, soldier, or I'm going to start ''pushing buttons!" : - '''Lily', holding a hand phaser on Picard "Your efforts to break the encryption codes will not be successful, nor will your attempts to assimilate me into your collective." "Brave words. I've heard them before. From thousands of species across thousands of world since long before you were created. But now, they are all Borg." "I am unlike any species you have assimilated" : - "Data" and the "Borg Queen" "So, you're all... astronauts, on... some kind of star trek?" : - Zefram Cochrane, to Riker, Troi, and La Forge "Maximum setting, if you'd fired this you would have vaporized me." "It's my first ray gun." : - Picard and Lily "Borg? Sounds Swedish..." : - Lily Sloane, to Picard "Definitely not Swedish!" : - Lily Sloane, after she sees Borg drones "No money? You mean you don't get paid?" "The acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives. We wish to better ourselves and the rest of humanity." : - Lily and Picard "AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!! AAAAHH..." "HEY! (stopping Picard) I think you got him..." : - Picard and Lily, while Picard uses a Tommy Gun to attack a Borg drone "Tell your men to stand their ground. Fight hand to hand if they have to." : - Picard, to Daniels "I gotta take a leak." "Leak? I'm not detecting any leak." "Don't people from the 24th century ever pee?" "Oh. Right. That's pretty funny." :- Zefram Cochrane and La Forge "I don't want to be a statue!" : - Zefram Cochrane, to Riker and La Forge "You told him about the statue?" : - Riker, to La Forge "Assimilate THIS!" : - Worf, before blowing up the interplexing beacon floating off the Enterprise's deflector dish "I don't know jack about the 24th century, but everyone out there thinks that fighting the Borg is suicide" :-'Lily Sloane', to Picard "Humans no longer seek revenge. We in the 24th century have an evolved sensibility. "Oh bullshit!" : - '''Picard' and Lily Sloane "Jean-Luc, blow up the damned ship!" "No! Nooooo!" (smashes glass and model ships with his phaser rifle) "I will not sacrifice the Enterprise. We've made too many compromises already; too many retreats. They invade our space, and we fall back. They assimilate entire worlds, and we fall back. Not again. The line must be drawn here! This far, no further! And I will make them pay for what they've done!" (a brief silence) "You broke your little ships. See you around, Ahab." : - Lily Sloane and Picard "Let's rock 'n' roll!!!" : - Zefram Cochrane, seconds before the Phoenix launches "Engage." : - Zefram Cochrane, unintentionally mirroring Jean-Luc Picard's famous order "Watch your future's end." : - Borg Queen to Picard, having ordered the destruction of the Phoenix "Resistance is futile." : - Data, to the Borg Queen before destroying a plasma coolant tank "Mr. Data, lay in a course for the 24th century. I suspect our future is there waiting for us." "Course laid in, sir." "Make it so." : - Picard and Data as the Enterprise leaves the 21st century Background Information Development With the success of Star Trek Generations and its worldwide gross of US$120,000,000 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111280/business, Paramount Pictures development executives approached producer Rick Berman in to ready the next installment in the Star Trek franchise. During an impromptu meeting with writers Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga, Berman revealed his interest in a time travel story. :"All of the ''Star Trek films and episodes I have been most impressed with – , , , and I could give you half a dozen more – have all been stories that deal with time travel. In a way, Star Trek Generations dealt with time travel. Nick Meyer's wonderful movie , dealt with time travel. The paradoxes that occur in writing, as well as in the reality of what the characters are doing and what the consequences are, have always been fascinating to me. I don't think I've ever had as much fun as being involved with "Yesterday's Enterprise," and having to tackle all the logical, paradoxical problems that we would run into and figure out ways to solve them." The Moore/Braga writing team, however, wanted to tell a story focusing on the Borg. Moore recalled the first meeting: :"''We were standing outside on the Hart Building steps. Rick had just come back from that studio meeting, and stopped us and he said, 'I really want you guys to think about it... I want to do a time travel piece.' Brannon and I added, 'We want to do something with the Borg.' And right on the spot, we said maybe we can do both, the Borg and time travel." Brainstorming sessions began between the writer/producers day jobs on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. Again, Moore recalled: :"...We started talking about the places and times that had been done on screen or had not been done on screen. Certain things we just crossed off, because they would be took hokey. We could go to the Roman Empire which would be cool in a lot of ways. But Picard in a toga? You don't want to do that. Put him in a spacesuit." Other time periods in history including the American Civil War were bandied about, eventually the Italian Renaissance time period was seized upon. An early story draft entitled Star Trek Renaissance expanded upon this idea. According to Moore, the story would have found Picard and company searching history for a group of time-traveling Borg. Happening upon a Renaissance village, the crew would hear stories about strange creatures taking over neighboring villages: :"We begin to realize that these horrific monsters... were the Borg. We track them down to a castle near the village where a nobleman runs a feudal society. We suspect the Borg are working in there, but no one can get in. So Data becomes our spy, impersonating an artist's apprentice... Data became friends with Leonardo da Vinci, who at the time, was working for the nobleman as a military engineer... you would have sword fights and phaser fights mixed together, in fifteenth-century Europe... it risked becoming really campy and over-the-top." According to some reports, Patrick Stewart nixed the idea upon first mention, objecting to the prospect of wearing tights throughout production. Additionally, the producers realized that the time period was expensive to realize on screen, with audience knowledge of and identification with the period very low. http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/6952/ron35.txt Ultimately, a time period after modern history was selected: The birth of the Federation. According to Brannon Braga: :"The one image that I brought to the table is the image of the Vulcans coming out of the ship. I wanted to see the birth of ''Star Trek. We ended up coming back to that moment. That, to me, is what made the time travel story fresh. We get to see what happened when humans shook hands with their first aliens." A revised storyline was constructed, this time called ''Star Trek Resurrection. Utilizing elements laid into place by Gene Roddenberry's original concepts for the Star Trek universe and the The Original Series episode , Resurrection closely resembled the final film. In the story, the Borg attack Zefram Cochrane's Montana laboratory, severely injuring the scientist. With Doctor Crusher fighting to save Cochrane's life, Captain Picard assumes his place in history, rallying a town around reconstructing the damaged warp ship. As the action unfolded, Picard would have become romantically involved with a local photographer and X-ray technician named Ruby, who helps the captain reconstruct a key element of the ship. Aboard the Enterprise, Commander Riker would be engaged in combat with invading Borg drones. The Borg, in Resurrection would remain faceless automatons. With a draft of Resurrection sent to studio executives, generally positive notes were returned. However, one Paramount executive pointed out the weakness of the Borg as being that they were "basically zombies." Despite the Borg's inception as a faceless swarm, the writers chose to incorporate a figurehead into the Collective. The Borg Queen was created, a logical extension of the insect-like qualities incorporated into the Borg's characterization. Having read the early script pages too, Patrick Stewart, however, was dissatisfied with the film. Stewart suggested that the Picard and Riker stories be switched. Thus, the focus of the film was transferred to the action aboard the Enterprise with a B-story on the planet's surface. Elements like Ruby the photographer and an injured Cochrane were ultimately scrapped. As was any prospect of a love affair for Picard. Ronald D. Moore described the thought process: :"Let's get simple. Bring Cochrane into the story. Let's make him an interesting fellow, and it could say something about the birth of the Federation. The future that Gene Roddenberry envisioned is born out of this very flawed man, who is not larger than life but an ordinary flawed human being." With that adjustment in the structure of the film, Berman suggested the addition of a holodeck sequence: The "cocktail party". In an early draft of the script, still titled Resurrection, was circulated to key members of the production staff, headed by Martin Hornstein and Peter Lauritson. Using this script, the production heads would budget the film, ultimately falling into the US$45,000,000 range. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117731/business Key positions were filled as preproduction began. With several members of the cast volunteering for the director's chair, Jonathan Frakes won out. According to Frakes, the film was offered to A-list directors who had little interest in the franchise; as a result he was offered the job "a month later than would have been ideal." Frakes appointed Jerry Fleck, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0281386/ a veteran of TNG, as first assistant director and John W. Wheeler as editor. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0923871/ Veteran costume designer Deborah Everton was assigned the task of creating all non-Starfleet clothing, plus redesigning the Borg with Michael Westmore. Everton's credits at the time included and The X-Files TV series; she later costumed Ronald D. Moore's miniseries. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0263715/ Robert Blackman returned to once again redesign the Starfleet uniforms, this time to compliment Frakes' darker color palette and stand up better to big screen scrutiny. Preproduction The New Enterprise Upon delivery of the script to production designer Herman Zimmerman, the art department's first task was the creation of a new Enterprise. Having been retained from his work on Generations, illustrator John Eaves operated in conjunction with Zimmerman to develop the Enterprise-E, based upon direction by Berman and the writers. According to Ronald D. Moore, "We described the new ''Enterprise in some detail. We said we want a sleeker look, with more of a muscular, almost warship kind of a look to it." According to illustrator Eaves, the process began by reviewing what came before, specifically Bill George's [[USS Excelsior|''Excelsior]] from . Over twenty or thirty sketches, the designer honed the look of the ship into an even sleeker design, rotating the oval-shaped saucer of the ''Enterprise''-D to fit the new concept. :"I wanted to carry some of the ''Enterprise-D lines into the E – not with the saucer or body, but where the nacelles connected. At this point, the nacelles were almost a third longer than in the finished product. But I had the struts holding the nacelles up; they branched off the body and returned forward , making a little horseshoe, the way the D does. But instead of having them angled back, I had them angled forward." By , Eaves and Zimmerman proceeded with their design with approval from Rick Berman. Featuring the same basic shape that appears in the finished film, this version of the ''Enterprise-E included movable warp pylons recalling the starship Voyager. Showing a dorsal-view sketch to a member of the production staff, Eaves received negative feedback that compared the ship to a chicken. "...From the moment he said that, the design was cursed. Every time I looked at it, I saw not a starship, but a chicken in a pan. Sadly, Herman saw it, too, so we had to (pardon the pun) scratch that one." Over the next several months, the ship was again refined. In sketched dated , the Enterprise-E had finally been settled upon. Now distinguished by back-swept engine pylons, the ship was almost ready to be constructed. Eaves described the next steps: :"So now it's January 1996, and we're just officially starting on the feature. Things were extremely hectic, as I was splitting my time between ''Deep Space Nine and the movie. Herman and I started presenting the last of the Enterprise-E drawings to Mr. Berman, and he loved all our efforts. This gave Rick [Sternbach] the time he needed to do his blueprints. Just when I thought I was finished with the E, Mr. Berman told Herman, 'You know, I love the shape we've got right now – but let's make sure. Let's do some more passes on the E, some different variations.' " With several days of sketching alternatives behind him, Eaves returned to his original design to focus on the smaller details that allowed Sternbach to complete his plans. By the spring of , the ship's blueprints were turned over to Industrial Light & Magic's model building team under John Goodson. The ten-foot model was fabricated under extreme time constraint (about half the normal time period); with photographs of rooms and people inserted into the ship's windows. A computer-generated model was also constructed (with almost indistinguishable differences between the two). http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/sovereign.htm Interiors Working simultaneously on the exterior ''Enterprise-E, Eaves and Zimmerman focused inward, generating drawings of the Enterprise bridge as early as . First designing a smaller space to fit with the smaller, sleeker direction of the Enterprise, the art department eventually opened the set up, creating a space that was larger than the bridge of the Enterprise-D. Eaves described the decision: :"We thought it would be a bad thing, because we'd decided the E's bridge should be sleeker and therefore smaller. But it wound up being a great thing; it was a beautiful set, with warmth and depth, and the colors Herman chose gave the bridge a sense of ballistic beauty and great function... we left the framework, but removed the walls, so that you could see other stations beyond those walls. The major players are in the main bridge, and off in the alcoves you have secondary crew members working, which adds a lot of scope and function to the bridge." A collaborative process, Eaves received input from Doug Drexler regarding his new bridge: :"Doug Drexler, who is quite the ''Star Trek expert, took a look at one of my sketches for the bridge and said 'Hey, you've got to have a row of blinkies – blinking running lights – under the viewscreen. It's a tradition on every Enterprise, those lights simply MUST be there.' We wound up designing a detailed area on the floor that acted like a holographic projector array – and we attached the blinking lights to that. So when the viewscreen came on, the lights on the back of the bridge would go down, and an image would appear on our new, viewscreen – with, of course, Doug's running blinkies." The final details of the bridge were honed through early 1996, alongside other new sets including new corridors and an expanded engineering. Again designed by Eaves and Zimmerman, ''Enterprise-E corridor sets were constructed in a basic horseshoe shape with built-in handrails, back-lit monitors and removable panels that could be easily swapped for "Borgified" parts. Two lighting schemes were created for the corridor sets for normal and "red alert" conditions, though the former was not seen until . For the evacuation sequence, set decorator John Dwyer created vacuum-formed pieces molded from the hood of a Camaro, to be used as escape pod hatches. Paramount's Stages 14 and 15 housed the vast corridor complex which connected to Herman Zimmerman's and Nancy Mickleberry's main engineering. Eaves recalled the experience: :"We... wound up designing a lot of 'ends', which are pieces that you can put at the back of a particular set, to create different areas of the ship. We could take a corridor and put a Jefferies tube end piece on it, or a hatchway. And we had a lot of corridor - two full quarter-circles of it, with a couple of T-intersections and walkways. You could walk for a good five minutes from the engine room set through Jefferies tubes without ever walking out of the set. There was also this big main door to engineering that Nancy Mickleberry had come up with. She put a second level of corridor above that, and you still had another story-and-a-half of warp core going up. The set was immense! Nancy and Herman worked together for a long time designing it (after all, it had to seem "Federation-style" and "Borgified"). The set had many neat areas, many of which never made it into the finished film." Despite the number of new sets created for the film, the production once again reused old material, including turbolift wall sections dating back to 's . Sections of the starship Voyager from Star Trek: Voyager were cannibalized for the film, with that series' sickbay repainted and redressed for use as Doctor Crusher's sickbay; the Voyager cargo bay set became the Enterprise weapons locker with relatively little modification. Having been saved from the wrecking crews following the completion of Generations, the Enterprise-D observation lounge, first built in for TNG was put into service, overhauled and expanded, then connected to the bridge set. For the first time in the Star Trek film series, the transporter room did not appear. Also omitted from the finished picture, a large, cylindrical fish tank constructed for Picard's new ready room was replaced with nondescript objet d'art before the cameras rolled. The Borg Assigned to refresh the Borg make up that had previously consisted of simple pale faces and cobbled together bodysuits, Deborah Everton and Michael Westmore cooperated with Herman Zimmerman and his team. As late as January of '96, pages of Borg designs flowed from the art department, with contributions by Alex Delgado of DS9. Working for Disney in addition to Star Trek, Delgado often worked on his time off, generating complex and sometimes grotesque images of the Borg, heavily influenced by insect life and ancient Egyptian culture. While many of Delgado's ideas (including exposed organs and obelisk-shaped vessels) were ultimately rejected, much of his work was integrated into Everton's and Westmore's final designs. According to Westmore: :"I wanted it to look like they were Borgified from the inside out rather than the outside in, it was very difficult. We didn't want somebody to come along and say, 'Oh that looks like '' .'" What resulted were eight Borg body-suits that would be combined with individually molded pieces to be swapped into various configurations representing different drones. :"Instead of having an entire helmet, now we have these individual pieces that are on the head, so you get this bald look. That way the pieces look like they're clamped into the head individually, instead of being a full cap that pulls over the top." Electronics built into the Borg suits often included blinking lights that spelled out production members' names in Morse code. Makeup effects were achieved by airbrushing tiny "wires" that would appear to be just below the surface of the Borg drones' skin; a wide variety of humanoid and alien drones were created, including Klingons, Cardassians and Romulans, though the latter two never appeared in the theatrical cut. With days beginning as early as 2am, it took the makeup department thirty minutes to get the eight Borg actors into their costumes, another five hours to apply makeup, and ninety minutes to remove the makeup at the end of the day. According to Westmore: :"''As they bettered their prep times, they were using two tubes, and then they were using three tubes, and then they were sticking tubes in the ears and up the nose. And we were using a very gooey caramel coloring, maybe using a little bit of it, but by the time we got to the end of the movie we had the stuff dripping down the side of their faces – it looked like they were leaking oil! So, at the very end, they're more ferocious." As the leader of the hoard of eight, Alice Krige's Borg Queen costume was unique. A tight-fitting, one piece bodysuit, combined with a large headpiece and integrated lighting systems, the first of the Queen's costumes was built out of hard rubber. After the first of Krige's ten-day shoot, the actress suffered from blisters raised by the tight rubber. A second, soft foam suit was fabricated overnight. Despite the relative comfort of the new suit, Krige was still required to wear painful silver contact lenses that could be worn for only four minutes at a time. According to Jerry Fleck, the actress never complained. Borg vessels were handled by John Eaves, based upon script pages, referring to a "tetragon", or rectangular-shaped vessel. Eaves generated drawings in January of 1996, labeled "Borg teragon": :"The first one I did had beveled edges and deep canyons throughout; I was trying to get away from the familiar ''Next Generation series cube... I did three or four passes in the rectangular shape. As time went on, Rick Berman, Ron Moore and Brannon Braga rewrote the scenes, returning to the original cube style of the Borg ship." Unable to reuse the Borg cube built for the television series, created out of inexpensive pieces from model kits, a new cube had to be designed. Described by Eaves as "nonsensical", a distinctly new surface was designed, distinguished by interlocking shapes and angles, with a hidden hatchway for Eaves' Borg sphere. Intricate details of ILM's Borg cube model were achieved through the use of recycled paper clips. The ''Phoenix In their original concept of Zefram Cochrane's warp ship, the Phoenix, Moore and Braga's script referred to a space shuttle-type lander, constructed on a large, outdoor platform. Difficult to realize without the aid of extensive digital effects, the production searched for more practical methods. Rick Berman ultimately seized upon the idea of utilizing a real nuclear missile, inspiring the writers to adjust the script to accommodate the "irony" of a weapon of mass destruction used to "inaugurate an era of peace." With the cooperation of the United States military, the production gained permission to shoot within a real missile silo in Green Valley, Arizona, near Tucson. Utilizing the real, though hollowed out Titan V missile still in its silo, the team resolved to construct a new nose to sit atop the missile, acting as the cockpit of the Phoenix. John Eaves: :"I started out by drawing a standard space capsule cone; I figured they had used whatever pre-existing technology they could find, then added to it whatever was needed... I wanted something that had a double window on the front and two side windows – bubbled, so that you could look out and around. However, construction-wise, a flat window was easiest, so that's what we did." Completing his design for the full-size cockpit facade, Eaves next began conceptualizing the second-stage Phoenix, basing his drawings on designs appearing in Michael Okuda's Star Trek Chronology. Incorporating TOS-style warp nacelles into his drawings, Eaves refined the Phoenix from rough drawings to finalized designs over months. Turning over the plans to ILM and John Goodson's team, Eaves was stunned by the finished product: :"...They all worked so hard; I've never seen a drawing translate so accurately into a finished model. They came up with a beautiful color scheme for it – a gold capsule with a lot of silver framework on the rocket, with silver, white and black graphics." Though mostly invisible on screen, a logo for Cochrane's warp ship was also designed by Eaves on the fly. :"One beautiful morning, Herman Zimmerman ran into my office and said, 'Stop what you're doing! We need a logo for the ''Phoenix, and we need it approved by eleven o'clock. This morning!' ...I'm from Phoenix Arizona originally, and immediately my mind was filled with images of phoenix birds. I especially remember this one beautiful large abstract sculpture of a phoenix outside the Town and Country Mall, right in the heart of the city." Calling a number of gift shops in the area, Eaves was finally able to locate a postcard with an appropriate picture of the phoenix he remembered. Taking the postcard to a local store, the gift shop owner faxed a picture of the phoenix to the Paramount production offices were Eaves went to work. With only a single pass, the logo was approved by Rick Berman. Production In the spring of 1996, newly-recruited director Jonathan Frakes and producer Rick Berman cast their three "guest stars". The role of Zefram Cochrane went to James Cromwell, a veteran of TNG and DS9, and recent Oscar nominee for his role in the movie '' . According to Jonathan Frakes: "In spite of having been nominated for an Academy Award, he actually came in and read for the part... He nailed it. He left Berman and me with our jaws in our laps." Cromwell later reprised his role as Cochrane in 's Enterprise pilot, . For the role of Lily, Frakes' immediate inclination after reading the script was to cast actress Alfre Woodard. Woodard, an Oscar nominee herself and multiple Emmy Award winner, was Frakes' self-proclaimed "godmother": "The first time we got through the script, I think everyone's first words were 'Alfre Woodard'." A challenge for Frakes and Berman, though, was ultimately solved in the casting of South African-born actress Alice Krige as the Borg Queen. Both Frakes and the Moore/Braga writing duo would later recall a sense of uneasy sexiness in Krige's portrayal of the Queen, aided by the application of a wet sheen to her skin by the make up department. Other guest players were added to the Resurrection call sheets as they were added to the script, including Trek vets Dwight Schultz as Barclay, Ethan Phillips as the holographic Maitre'D, and Robert Picardo as The Doctor. Phillips' role went uncredited, a request made by the actor to confuse fans who may or may not recognize him from his role as Neelix. Robert Picardo's appearance in the film was equally notable, inserted into one of the few sickbay scenes despite protestations by Gates McFadden. Other cast additions included Patti Yasutake's final appearance as Nurse Alyssa Ogawa, having first appeared back in TNG's fourth season. Don Stark was cast as Nicky the Nose, most memorable in his role as Bob Pinciotti in TV's – he also appeared in the DS9 episode as Ashrock the Yridian. Jack Shearer appears as Admiral Hayes, later reprising the role (apparently not dead) in Voyager episodes and . Michael Zaslow was the first person ever to be pronounced "He's dead, Jim" by Doctor McCoy in The Original Series episode ( ), appears as Eddy, Zefram Cochrane's bartender. Actor Eric Steinberg portrayed Paul Porter, taken early in the film but appearing throughout as a partially assimilated Borg drone in engineering. Brannon Braga is clearly visible as an extra in the holodeck nightclub as the Borg enter the scene, though writing partner Moore's appearance was never shot – despite sixteen hours of waiting with his then wife Ruby, an anniversary present. Rumors persist that both Nichelle Nichols and Kelsey Grammer (captain of the from ) have uncredited "voice cameos", though they are as unsubstantiated as those indicating that actor Tom Hanks was up for the role of Zefram Cochrane. Production on Star Trek Resurrection began on , but within a month, a new title had been chosen. Mere weeks prior, 20th Century Fox had announced the title of the fourth installment in their Alien film franchise: . A number of new titles were proposed for the film including Star Trek Destinies, Star Trek: Future Generations, and Star Trek Regenerations. The titles Star Trek: Borg and Star Trek Generations II were even chosen as working titles for the film until Star Trek: First Contact was finally selected, made official in a fourth draft script. (Star Trek: Borg went on to become the title of a video game, released not long after.) Minor details in the script, even as shooting was under way, continued to evolve. Early drafts were vague regarding the fate of the Defiant, DS9's resident warship. Having read the script, Deep Space Nine producer Ira Steven Behr's only note was an objection to the apparent destruction of the Defiant. The writers added the clarification "adrift but salvageable" and no mention of the ship's near annihilation was made in the TV series. Minor details in the script's pages included the ill-fated Enterprise crew member Ensign Lynch, named for Internet critic Timothy W. Lynch, who reviewed every episode of TNG and DS9. Gravett Island was not a real Earth location, but a fictional one named after Jacques Gravett, Ronald D. Moore's then assistant. Rumors circulated during production, even reported by some GLBT publications, that another ill-fated Enterprise crewman, Neal McDonough's Lieutenant Hawk was homosexual. No reference is made in the finished film to this fact; the producers have denied the rumors. http://www.webpan.com/dsinclair/trek.html Regarding the film's emotional battle played out between Picard and Lily, Brannon Braga recalled: "I'd have to say that scene was nailed and perfect only about a week before it was filmed." Location shooting dominated the early schedule for the Star Trek: First Contact production team. First up were scenes set in Bozeman, Montana, shot in the Titan Missile Museum outside Tuscan, Arizona for a duration of four days. The production then moved to the Angeles National Forest in the San Gabriel Mountains not far from Los Angeles. Two weeks of nighttime shooting followed, with a large village constructed by Herman Zimmerman's art department to represent exterior Bozeman. Minor details in the sets included the 52-star American flag referencing an early TNG episode, . A full-size section of the Vulcan lander was brought to this location for the film's finale. The film then moved to Los Angeles Union Station's art deco restaurant where the Dixon Hill holonovel sequence played out, including over 120 extras in period costumes and two Borg drones. Production finally moved to Paramount Pictures studios in Hollywood on May 3 for a half day of shooting on the three story Enterprise-E engine room set. Cameras were then moved from Stage 14 to Stage 15 where scenes were shot on the bridge, observation lounge and ready room sets. Jonathan Frakes recalled: :"It was as if we had gone back in time. It was the same sort of fantastic, cynical, fearless, take-no-prisoners abuse your fellow cast member that has kept us together all these long years." The next two months were dubbed by the crew, "Borg Hell", with scenes shot on stages 14, 15 and 8 that included heavily made-up Borg extras, stunts, pyrotechnics and one large, deflector dish. Likely the film's most labor intensive sequence to shoot was the battle on the Enterprise hull, on the film's largest set. The deflector dish itself, while massive was shot at angles intended to exaggerate its size – the manual input computers were labeled "AE35", a subtle reference to . The sequence also required Patrick Stewart as Picard, Michael Dorn as Worf, and Neal McDonough as Hawk to wear restrictive environmental suits that incorporated internal lighting and cooling systems. With the addition of flying rigs and complex stunts, tempers on the set were pushed, as was Patrick Stewart's endurance; the actor suffered breathing problems in his spacesuit, halting production for an entire day. Problems also arose in the realism of the sequence, with smoke rising from the set, then quickly falling, contrary to the physics of real life zero-G. This required Frakes to shoot around the smoke, or shoot takes short enough to prevent the falling smoke to be seen. Writers Moore and Braga agreed that, had the film been produced only a few years later, the entire sequence was likely to have been less complicated if shot with computer-generated sets. Despite the complications, Star Trek: First Contact wrapped production on (two days over schedule), with the flashback that opened the film. Fittingly, the sequence required Patrick Stewart to don the Starfleet uniform he had worn for seven seasons on Star Trek: The Next Generation. According to Ronald D. Moore, everyone involved with the film knew it was going to be a hit. Post Production Visual Effects As described by visual effects supervisor John Knoll, time allotted for post production visual effects and model building resulted in a "brutal effort". Not only did ILM's team have to construct the Enterprise-E, large models representing the Borg sphere, the new Borg cube, and the Phoenix were also required. Even more so than the previous film, the First Contact visual effects team also utilized computer-generated imagery, lending itself to sequences that required large numbers of starships. To stand up to the Borg cube alongside the new Enterprise and the old Defiant, ILM art director Alex Jaeger designed sixteen new Starfleet vessels, four of them rendered digitally and appearing in the massive opening battle sequence. The new starships included , , , and vessels; the latter starship was lost after production due to a computer glitch, never to appear in Star Trek again. Also included in the melee were a starship, a vessel, and an science ship in its final use. As a joke, the Millennium Falcon CG model (created for the Special Editions) was inserted into the Borg attack, though generally indistinguishable. Other computer-generated vessels included the John Eaves' designed Enterprise lifeboats and the Vulcan lander, constructed by the VisionArt company. At that time, First Contact included more complex visual effects shots than any Star Trek film before; low-tech methods, however, were still utilized. Close-up shots of La Forge's new ocular implants were achieved through the use of of a sprocket-shaped shower handle, matted against black contact lenses. Music :See also: Star Trek: First Contact (Soundtrack) Jerry Goldsmith, who composed the music for Star Trek: The Motion Picture and , returned to score First Contact and the remaining two TNG films after it. Because of his hectic schedule, Goldsmith shared much of the work with his son, Joel Goldsmith; as a result much of the music in First Contact does not appear on the commercial soundtrack. Among the two Goldsmiths' work, a theme established in The Final Frontier, referred to as the "A Busy Man" theme, was used throughout First Contact, likely as a theme for Picard. It can be heard just after the opening fanfare at the beginning of the film. It can also be heard only briefly in Insurrection, but is used quite heavily in . Also repeated in First Contact was the Klingon theme, originally introduced in The Motion Picture and used in this film to represent Worf. The opera that Picard listens to in his ready room is Berlioz' Les Troyens – "Hylas' Song" from the beginning of Act V. (Hylas is a homesick young sailor being rocked to sleep by the sea as he dreams of the homeland he will never see again.) This is the first and only Star Trek movie to have rock and roll in the soundtrack (though did feature late '80s jazz by the Yellowjackets, as well as a punk song). In their joint audio commentary on the Special Edition DVD, Ron Moore and Brannon Braga credited Peter Lauritson with the selection of Steppenwolf's original recording of "Magic Carpet Ride" (and not "some cheap cover"). They criticized, however, the choice of Roy Orbison's "Ooby Dooby" as being "too goofy". Promotion and Merchandising The teaser trailer for Star Trek: First Contact premiered with Paramount movies in early summer 1996. As much of the film had yet to be shot when the advertisements were assembled, footage from Star Trek Generations and episodes from Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was included. Inter-cut with sequences from the film, the reused footage included snippets of and . The trailer utilized score from "The Best of Both Worlds", Generations and , most notably, however, from . The theatrical trailer included footage unique only to it, with some visual effects created specifically for the trailer. Unique shots included the USS Voyager firing phasers at a Borg cube, cut takes of various Borg drones, and an alternate version of Picard's soon-to-be infamous speech, "The line must be drawn here!" This appears to be the only evidence of cut material; no deleted scenes have surfaced or been officially released. http://movies.trekcore.com/firstcontact/ As with the previous film and TNG, Playmates Toys released a line of action figures and accessories in conjunction with the premiere of the film. Among the toys was a model of the Enterprise-E, apparently based upon early sketches of the ship and not the finalized version - featuring several key structural differences from the finalized designed. Out of scale to their previous lines, the larger First Contact action figures were made in the likenesses of the entire Enterprise-E crew, Lily, Zefram Cochrane, Picard in an environmental suit, and a Borg drone – also based on production drawings. http://www.thelogbook.com/toy/trek-con/ In recent years, Art Asylum has released a detailed action figure in the likeness of Captain Picard from First Contact, complete with the skull of the Borg Queen. Marvel Comics released both a comic adaptation of the movie, and a sequel comic book that crossed the crew with the X-Men in "Second Contact". This had a later sequel novel by Michael Jan Friedman, called Planet X. First Contact novelizations and soundtracks were also released, as were updated version of the Star Trek Chronology and Star Trek Encyclopedia. Reaction Star Trek: First Contact premiered in American cinemas on , number one at the box office. With a budget of around US$45,000,000, it opened on 2,812 screens and went on to garner around US$150,000,000 worldwide. By comparison, Star Trek Generations, with a budget of US$35,000,000, opened at US$23,100,000 and grossed US$120,000,000 worldwide. It was the second highest grossing Star Trek film ever, falling just behind 's Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. The film, however, was considered by most to be not only a financial success, but a critical one as well. The film review website calculated a 91% overall approval rate for First Contact, with 40 of 44 reviews giving positive remarks. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_trek_first_contact/ Giving the film "Two thumbs up!", host Roger Ebert elaborated in his Chicago Sun Times review: :"...The story gives us yet another intriguing test of the differences among humans, aliens and artificial intelligence. And the paradoxes of time travel are handled less murkily than sometimes in the past... ''STFC was directed by Frakes, who did some of the The Next Generation shows for television, and here achieves great energy and clarity. In all of the shuffling of timelines and plotlines, I always knew where we were. He also gets some genial humor out of Cromwell... There is such intriguing chemistry between Picard and the Woodard character that I hope a way is found to bring her on board in the next film. Star Trek movies in the past have occasionally gone where no movie had gone, or wanted to go, before. This one is on the right beam." While often negative in his reviews of other ''Trek films, Ebert elaborated, "how I love the ''Star Trek jargon!" and even expressed his fondness for the Borg Queen: :"''I also admired the interiors of the Borg probe, and the peculiar makeup work creating the Borg Queen, who looks like no notion of sexy I have ever heard of, but inspires me to keep an open mind." http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19961122/REVIEWS/611220304/1023 Films' Emily Carlisle, however, was less enamored: :"While some quality dark humour comes from the dominatrix-outfitted Borg Queen's attempts to seduce android Data, other attempts at lightening the tone seem forced and stiff in comparison... Patrick Stewart believably plays Captain Picard... and he and Brent Spiner are clearly the most talented actors on display. While others try hard (Alfre Woodard in particular), their energies are dissipated in the broad storyline which switches uncomfortably between a running battle on board the ''Enterprise and an effort on the surface of the Earth to ensure that first contact is made on schedule. Focusing more on action sequences than characterisation, the breakneck pace gives an unsatisfying result." http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2001/02/07/star_trek_first_contact_1996_review.shtml In his review, '' magazine writer Joe Leydon expressed his approval: :"Frakes makes an auspicious debut as a feature filmmaker, sustaining excitement and maintaining clarity as he dashes through a two-track storyline... Stewart once again comports himself with all the gravity and panache you would expect from a Shakespearean-trained actor. He is at his best playing opposite Woodard in a scene that has their characters arguing over the best way to battle the Borg... It is a credit to both actors that their emotion-charged conversation is genuinely compelling. Purists who recall Gene Roddenberry's original vision of a less blood-soaked ''Star Trek universe may be put off by the rough stuff. But mainstream audiences will be more approving of the greater emphasis on high-voltage shocks and action-movie heroics." Leydon concluded, "''If ''First Contact is indicative of what the next generation of Star Trek movies will be like, the franchise is certain to live long and prosper." http://www2.variety.com/ref.asp?u=IMDB&p=H2BE&sid=VE1117911494 ''Star Trek: First Contact was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Makeup, Michael Westmore, ultimately losing to Rick Baker's . Despite an effort by the producers, the film failed to receive a nomination for the Data/Borg Queen kiss at the 1996 . The film, however, received numerous other nominations including Best Dramatic Presentation, Hugo Awards; Best Science Fiction Film, Saturn Awards; and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture, Alfre Woodard, s. Wins included a BMI Film Music Award for Jerry Goldsmith at the ; and Best Costumes for Deborah Everton, Best Supporting Actor for Brent Spiner, and Best Supporting Actress for Alice Krige at the 1996 Saturn Awards. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117731/awards Notes *Despite the use of the television series uniforms in the previous film, , this is the only movie starring The Next Generation cast where the television series combadge is seen, as visible on Picard's uniform in the "Best of Both Worlds" flashback in the opening of the film. *The reference that Data makes about using his "fully functional organs" seemingly references the time he used them with Tasha in , eight years before the Borg invasion. *''First Contact'' references and even explicitly quotes Moby Dick. Despite the story parallels, the producers hesitated using it, as was also heavy in Moby Dick references. Two years after First Contact premiered, Patrick Stewart played Captain Ahab in a 1998 TV mini-series. * Early in the movie, Zefram Cochrane points out the constellation Leo, the constellation in which Wolf 359 is located. * First Contact marked the first time the words "Star Trek" were ever uttered in the franchise. In the TNG finale , however, Q tells Picard "It's time to put an end to your ''trek through the stars." * The program menu in the holosuite depicts various holodeck programs from previous episodes. Specifically: Café des Artistes ( ), Charnock's Comedy Cabaret ( ), "The Big Goodbye" ( ), Emerald Wading Pool ( ) and the "Equestrian Adventure" ( ). * During the end of the Dominion War, Quark would speak, in , the same words ("''The line must be drawn here! This far and no further!") as Picard does during Star Trek: First Contact. * Riker calls the Defiant a "tough little ship." In the DS9 episode , Thomas Riker called it the same thing. * According to the (apocryphal) Customizable Card Game by Decipher, the Vulcan who greeted Zefram Cochrane was named Solkar, the grandfather of Sarek and the great-grandfather of Spock. This was later confirmed in . * The events of Star Trek: First Contact were later referred to in , , and . The Borg sphere was recovered in , while a slightly different version of Earth's first contact with Vulcans can be seen in . * According to the ENT episode , though this movie records the first official contact between Earth and Vulcan, contact was actually made in 1957 in a place called Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania, nearly 110 years prior. * Subsequent Vulcan starships seen in Star Trek: Enterprise would be based upon the ''T'Plana-Hath''-type lander seen in this movie. * The partial flesh in Data's face resembles the mask of the Phantom of the Opera. * The model of the that was on display in the conference room was auctioned off (albeit broken) in the It's A Wrap! sale and auction. * Lily says that "Borg" sounds Swedish. In Swedish, "borg" actually means "castle", although it would be pronounced as "borj". "Borg" is also a Swedish surname. In addition, the word is spelt and means the same in Norwegian and Danish, and in these cases is pronounced very similar to the English word. Merchandise gallery Image:ST-VIII head.png|teaser poster Image:Star Trek First Contact Soundtrack.jpg|soundtrack Image:ST8 First Contact novel.jpg|novelization Image:The Making of Star Trek First Contact cover.jpg|The Making of Star Trek: First Contact Image:First contact comic.jpg|comic book adaptation Image:Ross Guide to FC.jpg|[[Movies UK VHS#Special releases|Jonathan Ross' Essential Guide to Star Trek: First Contact]] Image:First Contact UK VHS original cover.jpg|Original UK VHS release Image:First Contact Collectors Edition cover.jpg|UK Collectors Edition VHS Image:First Contact 1998 UK VHS cover.jpg|1998 UK VHS rerelease Image:Star Trek First Contact Special Edition DVD cover (Region 1).jpg|Region 1 Special Edition DVD Image:Star Trek First Contact Special Edition DVD cover (Region 2).jpg|Region 2 Special Edition DVD Links and References Cast *Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard / Locutus of Borg *Jonathan Frakes as Commander William T. Riker *Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data *LeVar Burton as Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge *Michael Dorn as Lt. Commander Worf *Marina Sirtis as Commander (Counselor) Deanna Troi *Gates McFadden as Commander (Dr.) Beverly Crusher *Alfre Woodard as Lily Sloane *James Cromwell as Zefram Cochrane *Alice Krige as the Borg Queen Starfleet Personnel *Michael Horton as Daniels (credited as Security Officer) *Neal McDonough as Lt. Hawk *Marnie McPhail as Eiger *Robert Picardo as the Holographic Doctor *Dwight Schultz as Lt. Barclay *Adam Scott as the ''Defiant'' Conn Officer *Jack Shearer as Admiral Hayes *Eric Steinberg as Porter *Scott Strozier as a Security Officer *Patti Yasutake as Nurse Ogawa *Victor Bevine as Guard #1 *David Cowgill as Guard #2 *Scott Haven as Guard #3 *Annette Helde as Guard #4 *Majel Barrett as the computer voice Nightclub *C.J. Bau as a Bartender *Hillary Hayes as Ruby *Julie Morgan as a Singer in Nightclub *Ronald R. Rondell as a Henchman *Don Stark as Nicky the Nose Missile Complex *Cully Fredricksen as a Vulcan Captain *Tamara Lee Krinsky as a Townsperson Borg *Don Fischer *J.R. Horsting *Heinrich James *Andrew Palmer *Jon David Weigand *Dan Woren *Robert L. Zachar as Borg #7 Uncredited *Cameron as Ensign Kellogg *Michael Braveheart as Martinez *David Anderson as Armstrong *Ethan Phillips as the Maître d' *Ray Uhler as a Dancer *Mike Boss as a Nightclub Patron *Brannon Braga as a holographic Nightclub man at table *Ronald D. Moore as a Nightclub Patron *Pablo Soriano as a holographic dancer *Michael Zaslow as Eddy *Noelle Hannibal as a Vulcan *Jeff Coopwood as the Borg voice *Patrick Barnitt as a Borg drone Stunt performers *Kenny Alexander *Janet Brady *Chic Daniel *Mark De Alessandro *Eddy Donno *Tony Donno *Kenny Endoso *Christian Fletcher *Frankie Garbutt *Andy Gill as stunt double for Brent Spiner *Gary Guercio *Jim Halty *Tom Harper *Rosine "Ace" Hatem as a Nightclub woman *Billy Hank Hooker *Buddy Joe Hooker *Maria R. Kelly as a Nightclub woman *Jamie Keyser *Kim Robert Koscki *Joyce McNeal *Dustin Meier *Johnny C. Meier *Rita Minor as stunt double for Alfre Woodard *Jimmy Nickerson *John Nowak as stunt double for Patrick Stewart *Manny Perry as a Townsperson *Steve Picerni *Danny Rogers *Jimmy Romano *Pat Romano *Debby Lynn Ross *John Rottger *Craig Shuggart *Brian J. Williams as stunt double for Brent Spiner Stunt Borg *Joey Anaya, Jr. *Billy Burton, Jr. *Steve DeRelian as the one armed Borg drone *Andy Epper *Gary Epper as Ensign Lynch *Wayne King as a Klingon borg *Bob McGovern *Monte Rex Perlin *Tom Poster Crew *Director: Jonathan Frakes *Writers: Rick Berman (story), Brannon Braga (story & screenplay), Ronald D. Moore (story & screenplay) *Based Upon Star Trek Created by: Gene Roddenberry *Producer: Rick Berman *Executive Producer, Unit Production Manager: Marty Hornstein (as Martin Hornstein) *Cinematographer: Matthew F. Leonetti *Production Designer: Herman Zimmerman *Editors: Anastasia Emmons, John W. Wheeler *Costume Designer: Deborah Everton **Starfleet uniforms designed by: Robert Blackman *Composer: Jerry Goldsmith *Co-Producer, Second Unit Director: Peter Lauritson *Casting Directors: Junie Lowry-Johnson, Ron Surma *Visual Effects Supervisor: John Knoll *First Assistant Director: Jerry Fleck *Second Assistant Director: Rosemary Cremona *Second Second Assistant Director: David A. Ticotin *Stunt Coordinator: Ronald R. Rondell *Art Director: Ron Wilkinson *Set Decorator: John M. Dwyer *Production Supervisor: Ira S. Rosenstein *Production Assistants: Anthony Bro, Todd W. Buhmiller, Shane Clark, Eric Darensborg, Karen Garutso, Stephanie Gorsuch, Ellen J. Hornstein, Robert Newlin-Mazaraki, Seth Squadron, Simon Stotler, Brenda Taylor, Kerry A. Vill, Glenn Goldstein (uncredited) *Space suit creator and provider: Christopher Gilman and his company "Global Effects, Inc." (uncredited) References Ahab; ; antiproton; ''Appalachia'', USS; assimilation; atomic weapon; authorization code; auto-destruct; Battle of Sector 001; Berlioz, Louis Hector; "Big Good-Bye, The"; Bizet, Georges; Borg; Borg cube; Borg drone; Borg sphere; Borg Queen; ''Bozeman'', USS; ''Budapest'', USS; chronometric particle; Deep Space 5; ''Defiant'', USS; deflector control; deflector dish; Dixon Hill; Dyson; Earth; ECON; economics; Emergency Medical Hologram; emotion chip; ''Endeavour'', USS; ''Enterprise''-E, USS; escape pod; First Contact; fractal encryption code; Gravett Island; high school; holodeck; holodeck safety protocol; hydroponics; interplexing beacon; Ivor Prime; Kaplan (Crewman); kilopascal; Lake Armstrong; ''Lexington'', USS; Lopez; Luna; Lynch; ''Madison'', USS; "Magic Carpet Ride"; main engineering; maglock; mek'leth; ; Moby Dick; Montana; "Moonlight Becomes You"; ; neuroprocessor; New Berlin; ; ; "Ooby Dooby"; opera; ocular implant; Orbison, Roy; phaser rifle; Phoenix; plasma coolant; quantum torpedo; Romulan Neutral Zone; Romulan Star Empire; ; sickbay; Smithsonian Institution; ; Starfleet Academy; ; stellar cartography; Steppenwolf; T'plana-Hath; tequila; temporal vortex; theta radiation; throttle assembly; ''Thunderchild'', USS; Titan V; tricorder; Tycho City; Typhon sector; vice admiral; Vulcan; warp drive; whiskey; World War III; ''Yeager'', USS; Zefram Cochrane High School; zero-gravity combat training Media * Star Trek: First Contact (Special Edition) * ''Star Trek: First Contact'' (soundtrack) * ''Star Trek: First Contact'' (novel) Sources *''Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, Larry Nemecek, Pocket Books, . *Star Trek: The Next Generation Sketchbook: The Movies, John Eaves & J.M. Dillard, Pocket Books, . *Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Continuing Mission, Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens, Pocket Books, . *[[Star Trek: First Contact (novel)|''Star Trek: First Contact (novelization)]], "A First Look at Star Trek: First Contact", J.M. Dillard, Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens, . *''Star Trek: First Contact'' (Special Edition) DVD, Ronald D. Moore & Brannon Braga, audio commentary. *''Star Trek: First Contact'' (Special Edition) DVD, Michael & Denise Okuda, text commentary. External links * * * [http://www.ottens.co.uk/forgottentrek/ds9_5.php Behind the scenes on Star Trek: First Contact] at Forgotten Trek - features production history, concept art, and costume design. First Contact de:Star Trek: Der erste Kontakt es:Star Trek VIII: First Contact fr:Star Trek: First Contact nl:Star Trek: First Contact pl:Star Trek VIII: First Contact sv:Star Trek: First Contact